Bolivia

Bolivia. What an amazing country, full with contrasts. The most striking feat is the difference between the Altiplano, the highlands with all its indigenous culture and coldness, and the Oriente, the lowlands, making up for 2/3 of the country and is hot, fertile, rich, green and way more relaxed and open people. Its almost two different countries and it shows, for many years the lowlands claim autonomy while the highlands want a bigger share of its riches. But the country is not only strikingly beautiful, there’s a also lot of poverty, criminality and widespread corruption (all of which I have experienced several times myself). But Bolivia is pretty mindblowing to the last minute. Here’s my flight out of Rurre to La Paz in a 10 person plane. It flies soo close to and between the mountains.. not a pleasant place to be for people with flight fear (not me, ok a bit). 

Jungle of Alto Madidi

National Parc Madidi is one of the world´s most prestine rainforrest. The parc is full with animals as monkeys, jaguars, tapirs, otters but also stinging ants, trillions of sandflies, blood and sweat searching wasps, moskitoes etc. And the rivers are full with fish. We did a 15 day jungle track with the last 5 days down the Madidi river on rafts which we had constructed ourselves. I went with an American and Israeli dude, the guide and a cook. It was especially the first days very tough, 8 hours a day tracking through jungle and rivers with 25-30 kg of bagage (food). Guess I lost 4-5 kg. We ate rice and fish as breakfast and dinner every day.

    

Water is drunk straight from every river, sometimes the river was very brown and not that tasty. But in case of El Concho – this little waterfall-, the water was cristal clear and delicious.

 

Of course I had brought my fishing rod and caught several lunches. Here with the guide and our lunch, which was usually prepared on a fire. Very fresh indeed.

    

After dinner there´s the washing up. The guide was fishing with just a single fishing line and one night caught this 25 kg beast of a catfish. Way too big to eat so we threw it back in the river. The rivercrossings themselves were kinda dangerous as well partly because of the many manterays, the fish that puts a huge venimous spine in your leg. Luckily nobody got attacked this time..

One dark night we were fishing next to the river when there was a white parrot like bird not too far from us on the shore. The cook took his flashlight and shone it in the eyes of the bird, which seemed hypnothiosed by this and didnt move. He then slowly approached the bird which still seemed captured in the light, in what now seemed like a little opera stage, somehow I felt it was a deadly stage for the bird cause I though he was going to catch it to grill and eat. He got closer and closer, the bird made 2 short flights only to return to the same place. The American and I were watching the scene with choaked breaths, so exciting. Only when he was 50 cm away from the bird and ready to grab it, the bird flew away and escaped. Afterwards I asked the guide what they would have done with this gracious beautiful white parrot, to which he responded in his broken english: ´Por Pishing´ (for fishing)….

  

Everynight we would make our camp somewhere in the jungle or on the riverside. Camp is a piece of plastic over our heads and everyone layed in a moskitoe net, on the hard jungle floor. But one gets used to that after a couple of days.

  

Riverotter. Endangered. The parc is facing more threats, the government is planning a hightway through the parc to connect some cities. Furthermore there´s quite some illegal hunting (by cheap tour companies) and deforesting. It is probable that we are one of the last generations that can enjoy these wonderfull worlds of nature. The American guy saw a jaguar, I didnt. But thats ok, seeing wildlife is a privilage and not a right. I did feel bad when we had to cut some trees to construct our rafts. The raftin itself was an adventure, the river gets pretty rough especially after rain. The rapids with huge rocks and fallen trees make for treacherous moments..

     

After 15 days, this is the way you look. No shower -some washing in the river when the sandflies werent too bad-, no washing of clothes. In this pic I hadn´t touched water for the last 6 days. The first thing we did at return was having a nice cheesburger with coke. What a treat. Oh and a shower of course

 

San Ignacio de Moxos

This little village hosts an anual Amazone festival. Although the real Amazone component was a bit dissapointing to me the bull chasing was spectacular! The release these bulls into the arena with one person riding it. There´s no killing involved, just running. And some guys, every single one of them is drunk beyond believe, really got the horns! We saw a few of them getting spearced and carried of to the hospital. Local tv did a little interview with this weird gringo.. (not entirely sober himself.. )  The second day there was supposed to be poll climbing day, some 15 m high, but unfortunately they couldnt because of the rain.

 

Cochabamba

Contrary to popular believe, the highest Jesus statue in the world is not Rio but Cochabamba, with 34 meters altitude. Near Cochabamba is a nice lake where fish is the name of the game.

Salares de Uyuni

Just outside Uyuni is the ´train cementary´, hundreds of old rusting train mobiles just stand there in the desert. They were used in the mineral transport in the 20-30´s but as minerals declined these carrages became useless – that is except for a cool strawl around.

  

We, still with Amanda and Anthony, had a little trip to another planet. Its called Uyuni. The largest salt flats in the world, leftover of a once huge salt lake at an altitude of 3650 meters, a white world. In the middle there´s a cactus island, dont ask me what it´s doing there, but cool it is! We did the 3 day tour and had 4 other people in our jeep. The slat flats are so perfectly white and ´flat´ that you can play with persfective. Some of the cactusses are 10 meter high and 1300 yrs old…

     

   

We stayed a night in a salt hotel on the edge of the flats. It was pretty cold but nothing compared to the next night. The next day we continued through otherworldly landscapes, past vulcanos, flamengos, llamas, red and green lakes, slowly ascending to 4300 meters altitude where we would have a verrry cold lunch and spend the night at -25C!!!! Protected only by 4 thin walls it was the coldest Ive ever felt. In the morning one can see an amazing Venus rise though….

          

Early in the morning we drove at 5000 meter altitude past geysers and hotsprings, how cold… hands freeze instantly. More comfy were the hot springs somewhat later where we went in half. Well past the green lake is the Chilean border, the vulcano in the background was the place of a sacret Inca burial. And then through Dali´s valley (because of the weird rock formations) and past an 300 yrs old church back to Uyuni.

       

Potosí

Impressive. That’s Potosí. The whole town was created around one thing only: the huge mountain that looms over the valley. The Spanish found silver here in the 16th, and a lot. They said that the Spanish got enough silver from this mountain to construct a silver bridge to Spain and still had silver left to carry across it, an est 45.000 tons. It was the main source of income for the Spanish imperial crown, at a huge cost: some estimates count that through the centuries some 8 million people were worked to death in these mines…. The wealth build the colonial town which is now Unesco world heritage. For me it’s an amazing sight, this mountain alone has changed the course of European history. It’s the reason why Spain could fight its European wars in the 16th and 17th century. Its the reason why Southern Holland is Catholic, its the reason why we Dutch still sing a famous victory song about a naval heroe who conquered this ‘silver fleet’, Piet Hein. These days the mine is almost silver empty but mining goes on. Approximately 4000 men work every day deep in the mountain under the most horrific circumstances. And you can take an organised tour to meet them down there.. you bring presents for the miners (dynamite, softdrinks, coca) and afterwards you can make some dynamite yourself!!!! And then set them off, the explosion at 50 meters distance is very loud. JAJA fun!!! Oh and try one of the citrus drinks on the street.. ‘yummie’, another very interesting to visit is the age old Catholic women Convent where girls at age 15 went in to serve God and never got out or got to see another human being…

     

First you go to the miners market where you buy presents for the miners and some for yourself.. (I went with US Amanda and Ozzie Anthony btw)

  

The chewing of the coca leaf helps stand the altitude, it is restricted to experts only… not me!!!!

  

Then you go to to a refinery where you can witness the process to extract the minerals from stone, the guide smears some silver on your face.

  

Then you enter the beast. Soon it gets very very dark and very hot, the poisonous fumes take your breath away, therefor you wear a scarf in front of your mouth. You crawl through tiny passages and reach here and there an individual worker. They wotk 12 hours a day with beat hands and dynamite. We came across a 58 yr old man who workes there since ago 14.. (not the photo)

     

And after a few hours in the mines, fresh air and preparing the dynamite!!!! hehehe. The fuse takes 3 minutes to explode, so you pass around the ignited dynamite like a bottle, before the guide took it some 50 meters away where it exploded with a surprisingly hard bang (see film Travel Continued prt 2).

     

 Anthony has written a pretty cool account of this trip as well, read here.

Sucre

This all white colonial town is a real surprise – how chilled out an pretty, totally different that La Paz. Climate is way nicer too.. Sucre used to be the political capital (now La Paz) and remains the juridical capital. 

  

La Paz

Street life

Well here{s some pictures from the sundaymarket at El Alto, the high part of La Paz. The chicken with (many) potatoes is being served with all bare hands.. but it was the most tender one I ate  in whole south america I believe! The potatoes themselves make a spectacular sight, there{s so many of them in all shapes and colours. Yummie. Fruit juices are another Bolivian favorite and I generally have one a day – delicioso!

  

 

Tiwanaku

72 km out of La Paz is one of the most important pre Inca archeological sites of Bolivia, Tiwanaku. The ‘Sun gate’ is a archeological icon. The site, once a spiritual centre, is under restoration (Bolivian style: men, women, children) and it remains an impressive place with it’s statues and sunken temples; so high in the mountains, so obsolete. The leftover culture was incorporated by the expanding Inca empire halfway the 15 century.

  

Valle de la Luna

Half an hour outside La Paz is Bolivia’s own Moon Valley. Although it doesn’t come close to Argentina’s spectacular Moon Valley (but what does compared to that amazing country?) – what is interesting here is that you can really walk about everywhere through this valley due to lack of status and parc security (due to lacking financial resources, awareness?). Though this is a lot of fun for now it means that the parc gets pretty damaged, the same was to be seen at the ruins of Isla del Sol. I hope the Bolivian authorities can undertake serious preservation programs soon to ensure that these magical places remain intact for future generations.

   

One of the most spectacular cities for sure, Bolivia’s capital. Build partially on a high plane (3800 m) and the majority in a dramatic canyon overlooked by giant white-capped mountains..

We went to a wrestling show night, men and women were wrestling, the girls were super tough! They must have experienced some serious pain. The most funny moment though was a moment when one of the girls was climbing up the corner ring but trickled over her own skirt thereby falling from 1 m straight on her face – so painful!!.. I was laughing so hard jajaja… (its not the picture). The fights were even taken to the tribunes.. what a fun night!

 

 

Lago Titicaca continued..

Magic…. just magic is Lago Titicaca. The peacefulness, the beauty and history. There’s many islands on the lake but the most famous is Isla del Sol. According to Inca legend the famous birthplace of the Inca empire. It’s here that the first Inca recieved the mission to create the new empire and order in the world. On the island there’s still very nice Inca architecture as the temple of the sun.  

       

Yes this was my hotelroom. Not bad the view..